Frank Simpson Sr. had high blood pressure. Left unchecked, it caused a heart attack, causing him to fall, hit his head and die at the age of 71 in the 1970s.

Frank Simpson Jr., has high blood pressure. He takes medications that weren’t available 40 years ago, and with doctor oversight and exercise, his blood pressure has been only a mild concern for him, as he lives a spry and active life at the age of 84.

"I just try and do the right thing," said Simpson. "I do a little walking, I keep a low profile, and I take medications. Basically, that’s about it."

The father-and-son comparison is emblematic of the health trends outlined in a new study on longevity released recently that shows black men in New Jersey are living a lot longer than their predecessors.

Overall, the study shows, men and women of all races are living longer in New Jersey, according to national statistics compiled by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The study analyzed data from 1989 to 2009. New Jersey women have now cracked the 80-year lifespan on average. And men, who have traditionally not lived as long, are beginning to catch up — especially black men, whose average life span has increased 10 years in the last two decades.

New Jersey residents fared better than most other states. Life expectancy remained the same or dropped in 84 percent of Oklahoma’s counties, 58 percent of Tennessee’s counties, and 33 percent of Georgia counties.

New Jersey has not only improved across the board for females, but has also made inroads into historical gaps for black men and black women. Experts say limiting risk factors and better proactive medicine — particularly cardiovascular treatments — might explain why people are living longer.

"I do have more men in my practice," said Theresa Redling, a Newark geriatrician. "My average patient age is 85. It used to be just women that lived this long."

In New Jersey, women on average are living 82.2 years — 4 years longer than their counterparts in 1989 — and longevity has increased in every New Jersey county, according to data, which came from mortality numbers on file with the National Center for Health Statistics.

But Garden State men have seriously begun to close the gap, living now an average of 77.8 years — 6 years more than their counterparts did 20 years earlier.

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Within these statistics are a surge in the lives of black women and men, whose lives have lengthened by 6.6 years for women and a whopping 9.7 years for men over the same time frame, the data shows. Black men live an average of 72.8 years, while black women live an average of 79.1 years.

"New Jersey has had significant improvement almost across the board, particularly with men," said William Heisel, a spokesman for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. "If you look at the top counties in the country that have had major improvement, a lot of the counties in northern New Jersey are near the top."

Cardiovascular interventions, including revolutionary new statins and stents, have helped to increase life spans, said experts like Redling, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey — New Jersey Medical School and also the director of geriatric education and hospice medical director at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

Men are benefitting from improvements in heart care. Additionally, more men have quit smoking earlier and obesity, although still a major problem among men, has not affected man as severely as women, said George Rhoads, the interim dean of UMDNJ – School of Public Health.

"If you take smoking alone — that kills an average of 248,000 men a year," said Heisel. "New Jersey is one of the states that bars smoking indoors. If you just eliminate that one risk factor, you’re making a huge dent in those early deaths."

The northern part of New Jersey fared better than the southern part in the statistics, noted Joel Cantor, director of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

"It’s interesting, because that’s the same part of the state that’s lost a whole bunch of hospitals. But it could be better access to primary care that’s improving health outcomes," Cantor said. "

But there is a flip side to more people living longer: costs for keeping more and more older people healthy could continue to rise in the future, Redling points out.

People are living a lot longer with multiple disorders or diseases, she said. "So it’s great we’re living longer, but our health system is not set up for people that are living much longer."

Simpson, of Orange, still cares for his wife of 63 years, Dorothy. He said the couple makes their doctors’ visits, hand in hand, and he cares for her when she’s not feeling well. They are, he says, trying to keep on top of what ails them.

"We continue to take our medications and try to live out our lives peacefully," Simpson said.